Paul Thurrot: "Tipped off by a reader, I checked my System log in Event Viewer today and what did I find but a stack of pending updates for all of the core apps in Windows 8. I'm not 100 percent sure this is what I think it is. But if we're right, it looks like 18 of the core apps in Windows 8 are about to get updated. Or, almost all of them." Foley confirms it. By far Windows 8's weakest link, so I'm hoping this is true. Especially the Mail application is dreadful.

This is the advantages of the new Windows Store application model -- apps can be updated independently of the OS out of band.

This is in no way dependent on having a central repository. See Windows Live Essentials, which in theory at least could be updated at any time, out of band with the OS, or IE9, or .NET (not an app, but still part of the OS). The only advantage of the Store is that you don't litter your system with dozens of updaters, but even that could be avoided without the need of a Store by using an updater to which apps can register. They could name it Windows Update.

In addition, Windows 8 apps like Mail support protocol activation and URI schemes which means another third party app can just be dropped in to replace it.

This is in no way dependent on the Store or unique to Windows 8 either. Windows supported custom URI schemes for like forever.

This is in no way dependent on having a central repository. See Windows Live Essentials, which in theory at least could be updated at any time, out of band with the OS, or IE9, or .NET (not an app, but still part of the OS). The only advantage of the Store is that you don't litter your system with dozens of updaters, but even that could be avoided without the need of a Store by using an updater to which apps can register. They could name it Windows Update.

They could be, and WLE definitely was progress but it wasn't on the scale of what's been ushered in by the Windows Store being the place for applications on Windows.

You now have a central, trusted place to get app updates you know have been vetted to work within the capabilities and constraints they declare to require.

This requires not just out of band distribution, but deep architectural OS sandboxing and brokering which wasn't present pre-Windows 8.

The Windows Store is an updater that you can subscribe to, it just so happens to be a Store front too.

But what we're seeing now is a trend for more agile releases from the various teams within Microsoft as a result of all of this. The Bing applications have been updated various times, same with Microsoft's other stock apps including Mail a few times. This wouldn't be Mail's first update.

I was also wrong before, IE and any other browser which opts into the Metro environment by running a mixed mode app also isn't updated via the Windows Store.

This is in no way dependent on the Store or unique to Windows 8 either. Windows supported custom URI schemes for like forever.

Yes, but we also had named pipes, shared memory, and other IPC which made the use of these URI schemes rather limited.

With WinRT, the only method for app to app communication is custom URIs and protocol associations which pushes these features into the mainstream.

It's not only used for Mail, or for IE, but used for Xbox Music, and Skype, and the People app and a lot others.

You use it intrinsically because it's part of how apps navigate on the Windows Store, if you support secondary tiles, developers could in theory leverage your work and have their app deep dive to any point you expose within yours.

On top of this, if a URI scheme isn't registered on the OS (or a protocol association), then the Windows Store is automatically invoked and all apps containing the relevant support are shown in the results.

This is a much richer and deeper level of integration that has existed before in versions of Windows.

P.S. I've read the comments by others about how other distros have had centralized repositories before, and that's fine, I agree that this has been a long time coming.